Sophie Arana
Fulford Junior Research FellowI am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Human Information Processing Lab at the Department for Experimental Psychology.
My background is in cognitive psychology and Language and for my doctorate I studied neural correlates of abstract linguistic knowledge in human brain recordings using Magnetoencephalography.
In my current research, I explore the human capacity for generalising abstract sequential
rules in non-linguistic learning tasks. I am specifically interested in the following questions: (1) What are the conditions and constraints that promote abstract rule representation in the first place and (2) how does the brain represent and operate on abstract knowledge during sequential processing?
Selected Publications
- “Is the motor system necessary for processing action and abstract emotion words? Evidence from focal brain lesions.” FR Dreyer, D Frey, S Arana, S Saldern, T Picht, P Vajkoczy, et al. Frontiers in Psychology 6, 1661. 2015
- “Sensory Modality-Independent Activation of the Brain Network for Language.” S Arana, A Marquand, A Hultén, P Hagoort, JM Schoffelen. Journal of Neuroscience. 40 (14), 2914-2924. 2020
- “Lexical frequency and sentence context influence the brain’s response to single words”. E Huizeling, S Arana, P Hagoort, JM Schoffelen. bioRxiv. 2020
- “The cognate facilitation effect depends on the presence of identical cognates.” SL Arana, HM Oliveira, AI Fernandes, AP Soares, M Comesaña. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1-19. 2022.
- “MVPA does not reveal neural representations of hierarchical linguistic structure in MEG. SL Arana.” JM Schoffelen, T Mitchell, P Hagoort. bioRxiv. 2021
Siddharth Arora
Research Fellow; Programme Director, Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development; Parkinson's UK Early Career Fellow
Siddharth Arora
Research Fellow; Programme Director, Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development; Parkinson's UK Early Career Fellow
Siddharth completed his DPhil, focused on developing statistical methods for time series forecasting, at Somerville College.
His research interests include Biomedical Signal & Image Processing, Statistical Modelling, Forecasting, and Chaos Synchronization. His work is primarily concerned with two application areas: Healthcare, and Energy.
Currently, Siddharth is investigating remote technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of Parkinson’s disease. He develops statistical algorithms using data for voice, gait, posture, reaction times, dexterity, and tremor, collected using smartphones in a home and community setting. These algorithms are aimed at identifying patterns in the data, which can be used to discriminate people with Parkinson’s disease from healthy controls and accurately monitor the severity symptoms of the disease over time.
Siddharth is also working on a NHS funded project aimed at predicting the A&E arrivals, admissions and discharges across hospitals in the West Midlands. The algorithms developed as part of this project will be used operationally by the NHS to optimize staffing decisions, which would help reduce patient waiting times.
“Detecting and Monitoring the Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease using Smartphones: A Pilot Study”, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 21, 650–653.
S. Arora, V. Venkataraman, A. Zhan, S. Donohue, K.M. Biglan, E.R. Dorsey, M.A. Little (2015)
“Forecasting Electricity Smart Meter Data Using Conditional Kernel Density Estimation”, Omega, forthcoming.
S. Arora and J.W. Taylor (2014)
“Cortical and Clonal Contribution of Tbr2 Expressing Progenitors in the Developing Mouse Brain”, Cerebral Cortex, forthcoming.
N.A. Vasistha, F. García-Moreno, S. Arora, A.F.P. Cheung, S.J. Arnold, E.J. Robertson and Z. Molnár (2014)
Synchronization of Coupled Map Lattice using Delayed Variable Feedback”, Journal of Applied Nonlinear Dynamics, 3, 245-253.
S. Arora and M.S. Santhanam (2014)
“Short-term Forecasting of Anomalous Load using Rule-based Triple Seasonal Methods”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 28, 3235-3242.
S. Arora and J.W. Taylor (2013)
“Nonlinear and Nonparametric Modelling Approaches for Probabilistic Forecasting of the US Gross National Product”, Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics, 17, 395-420.
S. Arora, M.A. Little and P.E. McSharry (2013)
Dr Michael Ashdown
Practitioner Non-Stipendiary Lecturer in LawMichael is a barrister at Wilberforce Chambers.
Before going to the Bar, Michael spent six years as Fellow and Tutor in law at Somerville College. His research concerned trustees’ powers and duties and the remedial consequences of breaches of trust, with a particular focus on the so-called “rule in Re Hastings-Bass”, and was cited in the Court of Appeal in Pitt v Holt [2011] EWCA Civ 197. He lectured, examined and gave tutorials on the law of trusts and Roman law. He continues to teach land law to Oxford undergraduates.
As a barrister, he appears regularly in the High Court and County Court, both as sole counsel and as a junior in a larger team.
Michael’s particular interests are in all aspects of litigation and advice relating to trusts law. This encompasses both traditional private client work and pension schemes, together with professional negligence in those fields.
Recent notable instructions include:
- British Airways v Maunder. Acting for British Airways in a long-running claim against the trustees of the Airways Pension Scheme for alleged breaches of trust in the exercise of discretionary powers, culminating in a 7-week trial before Morgan J (with Michael Tennet QC and Sebastian Allen).
- Acting (as sole counsel) for a minor beneficiary in two sets of contested High Court proceedings, first pursuant to Schmidt v Rosewood Trust Ltd to obtain trust accounts and other information to explain the diminution of the trust fund, and secondly to remove and replace the existing trustees.
- Acting (as sole counsel) in High Court proceedings for a beneficiary seeking to establish his entitlement to a half share in a substantial trust fund, and to value and realise that share.
- Acting (as sole counsel) for the claimant firm of solicitors in the County Court trial of their claim to recover unpaid fees from a client for whom they had acted in Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.
- Advising the defendant administrator on claims under the under the Inheritance (Provision for Family of Dependants) Act 1975 concerning overseas property, the validity of UK and foreign marriages and divorces by both claimant and deceased, and the recognition in England of foreign polygamous marriage.
‘English Trust Law Principles’ in S Kempster, M McMillan and A Meek (eds) International Trust Disputes (OUP 2020)
‘Disorder & delayed discovery’ (2019) 169 (7840) New Law Journal 16
‘A modern approach to fraud on a power’ (2018) 24 Trusts & Trustees 653 (with Tiffany Scott QC)
‘Professional Advice’ in PS Davies, S Douglas and J Goudkamp (eds), Defences in Equity (Hart Publishing 2018)
‘Trustee Decision Making: The Rule in Re Hastings-Bass’ (OUP 2015)
‘Laches and limitation’ (2014) Trusts & Trustees 20 (9): 958-965 (with Clare Stanley QC)
Helen Ashdown
Janet Vaughan Tutor in Clinical Medicine (Somerville); General Practitioner; Clinical Lecturer, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
Helen Ashdown
Janet Vaughan Tutor in Clinical Medicine (Somerville); General Practitioner; Clinical Lecturer, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
Dr Helen Ashdown is a GP and clinical researcher based in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.
Helen completed her pre-clinical training at Cambridge, before moving to Oxford for her clinical studies and post-graduate training and DPhil in academic general practice. She is now an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care in Oxford. Her principal research interests are in respiratory disease and diagnosis in primary care, particularly the use of medical devices for diagnosis and monitoring. She also has longstanding interests in infection and child health, particularly infant feeding. Her current research uses information from large linked datasets collected from routine primary care consultations, and diagnostic prospective observational studies of novel medical technologies in primary and ambulatory care.
Helen works part-time as a GP at 19 Beaumont Street surgery in Oxford, where she is the Respiratory Lead GP.
At Somerville, Helen is the lead tutor for Clinical Medicine (Undergraduate Years 4-6 and Graduate Entry Years 2-4) and leads the team of tutors delivering clinical medicine tutorials, as well as having responsibility for pastoral care of students during their clinical years. She is passionate about teaching medicine and helping students to thrive during their time at Somerville.
1. Patel S, Dickinson S, Morris K, Ashdown HF, Chalmers JD. A descriptive cohort study of withdrawal from inhaled corticosteroids in COPD patients. Primary Care Resp J 2022;32:25. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00288-6.
2. Ashdown HF, Smith M, McFadden E, Pavord ID, Butler CC, Bafadhel M. Blood eosinophils to guide inhaled maintenance therapy in a primary care COPD population. ERJ Open Res 2021; 8(1):00606-2021. doi: 10.1183/23120541.00606-2021.
3. Smith MC, Ashdown HF, Sheppard JP, Butler CC, Bankhead C. Statin prescription in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and risk of exacerbations: a retrospective cohort study in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. BMJ Open 2021; 11(12):e050757 doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050757.
4. Frazer JS, Barnes GE, Woodcock V, Flanagan E, Littlewood T, Stevens RJ, Fleming S and Ashdown HF. Variability in body temperature in healthy adults and in patients receiving chemotherapy: prospective observational cohort study. J Med Eng Technol 2019; 43(5):323-33 doi: 10.1080/03091902.2019.1667446
5. Ashdown H, Steiner M. Delivering high value therapies in COPD: the secret is in the marketing. Eur Respir J 2019; 53(4): 1900215 doi: 10.1183/13993003.00215-2019.
6. Abel L, Dakin HA, Roberts N, Ashdown HF, Butler CC, Hayward G, Van den Bruel A, Turner PJ and Yang Y. Is stratification testing for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations cost-effective in primary care? An early cost-utility analysis. International J Technol Assess Health Care 2019; 35(2):116-125. doi: 10.1017/S0266462318003707
7. Moore A, Ashdown HF, Shinkins B, Roberts NW, Grant CC, Lasserson DS and Harnden A. Clinical characteristics of pertussis-associated cough: a diagnostic systematic review and meta-analysis. Chest 2017; 152(2):353-367.
8. Fisher RF, Croxson CH, Ashdown HF, Hobbs FR. GP views on strategies to cope with increasing workload: a qualitative study. Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (655): e148-e156. doi: 10.3399/bjgp17X688861.
9. Croxson CH, Ashdown HF, Hobbs FR. GPs’ perceptions of workload in England: a qualitative interview study. Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (655): e138-e147. doi: 10.3399/bjgp17X688849.
10. Ashdown H and Harnden A (editors). BMJ 10 minute consultations: Primary Care. BPP (London) 2016.
11. Heath L and Ashdown HF. Ask the expert: electronic cigarettes. Innovait 2016 DOI: 10.1177/1755738016654935
12. Ashdown HF, Raisanen U, Wang K, Räisänen U, Ziebland S, Harnden A, for the ARCHIE investigators. Prescribing antibiotics to ‘at-risk’ children with influenza-like illness in primary care: qualitative study. BMJ Open 2016;6:e011497
13. Moore A, Ashdown HF, Harnden A. Pertussis has low prevalence in adults with acute cough and is difficult to distinguish clinically from other causes. Evidence Based Medicine 2016. 21(3) doi: 10.1136/ebmed-2015-110353.
14. Fisher R, Ashdown H, Brettell R, McCartney D. Backgrounds and aspirations of primary care academic clinical fellows. Education for Primary Care 2015;26(6), 444-445. doi: 10.1080/14739879.2015.1101859.
15. Fisher RFR, Ashdown HF, Brettell R, McCartney D. Re: UK academic general practice and primary care. BMJ 2015;351:h4164
16. Ashdown H, McCartney D, Roberts N, Stevens R, Pavord S, Butler CC, Bafadhel M. Inflammatory biomarkers as a predictor of frequency of exacerbations in COPD: a systematic review of biomarkers applicable to primary care. PROSPERO 2015: CRD42015016879.
17. Gill PJ, Ashdown HF, Wang K, Heneghan C, Roberts NW, Harnden A, and Mallett S. Identification of children at risk of influenza-related complications in primary and ambulatory care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Resp Med 2015 3:139-49. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(14)70252-8.
18. Ashdown HF, Fleming S, Spencer EA, Thompson MJ, and Stevens RJ. Diagnostic accuracy study of three alcohol breathalysers marketed for sale to the public. BMJ Open 2014;4:e005811. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005811.
19. Ashdown HF, Ho LP, Haynes JE. Lumps, bumps and diagnostic stumps: a case report. BJGP 2013;63:663-664.
20. Nohavicka L, Ashdown HF, Kelly DK. Determining immunisation status of children from history: a diagnostic accuracy study. BMJ Open 2013;3:e002822. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002822.
21. Ashdown HF, D’Souza N, Karim D, Stevens RJ, Huang A, and Harnden A. Pain over speed bumps in diagnosis of acute appendicitis: diagnostic accuracy study. BMJ 2012;345:e8012. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e8012.
22. Davis H, Mant D, Scott C, Lasserson D, and Rose PW. Relative impact of clinical evidence and over-the-counter prescribing on topical antibiotic use for acute infective conjunctivitis. BJGP 2009;59:897-900.
23. Davis H, Kennedy S, Prowse A. Endometriosis. In: Schwab M, editor. Encyclopedia of Cancer. 2nd ed. Springer, 2008.
Richard Ashdowne
Lecturer in Linguistics
Richard Ashdowne
Lecturer in Linguistics
I teach linguistics to undergraduates at colleges across the University, including Somerville.
I provide supervision and teaching for students doing linguistics as part of a degree in Modern Languages and Linguistics, or Psychology, Philosophy, and Linguistics.
My background is in Classics and linguistics. I read Classics as an undergraduate at New College, Oxford, and then completed a DPhil in linguistics, working on aspects of forms of address in Latin and the Romance languages, including their grammar, meanings, and uses. My main interests are in questions of how languages change in general and in the history of Latin and French in particular. Within this my research has often focused on changes that relate to semantics or pragmatics, such as the lexicography of medieval Latin and the history of T/V distinctions in romance languages.
Since finishing my doctorate, I have taught both Classics and linguistics at a number of colleges across Oxford as well as for the university. From 2004 to 2008, I was a member of the Classics Faculty Language Teaching Team and during that time he and James Morwood published Writing Latin (Bristol Classical Press, 2007), an introduction to prose composition in Latin. In 2008 I joined the faculty research project preparing the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, first as an assistant editor, in which role I was instrumental in developing the project’s use of technology; from 2011-14 I was the Dictionary’s final editor. Since 2014 I have been Lecturer in Classical Languages at University College, in which role I provide language teaching to the college’s classics students.
‘-mannus makyth man(n)? Latin as an indirect source for English lexical history’
2020
Chapter
The Multilingual Origins of Standard English
‘Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources’
April 2018
Book
Adams (J.N.) ‘An Anthology of Informal Latin, 200 BC – AD 900. Fifty Texts with Translations and Linguistic Commentary.’ Pp. xii + 719. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-107-03977-3.
January 2018
Journal article
Classical Review
Introduction
January 2017
Chapter
Latin in Medieval Britain
‘Address systems’
March 2016
Chapter
The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages
‘Dictionaries of dead languages’
November 2015
Chapter
The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography
Löfstedt – (P.) Poccetti (ed.) Einar Löfstedt nei percorsi della linguistica e della filologia latina. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Roma, 6–7 maggio 2004. (Ricerche sulle lingue di frammentaria attestazione 4.) Pp…
October 2009
Journal article
The Classical Review
Daniel Barker-Flores
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Daniel Barker-Flores
Graduate Teaching Assistant
I am a DPhil student in Politics at the DPIR, and a member of Green Templeton College.
My doctoral research focuses on state efforts to augment territorial control in urban spaces governed by organised criminal groups, and draws on cases from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. My thesis employs qualitative methods, using data gathered through extensive fieldwork. My thesis relates to several of my core research interests, which include state building, the politics of organised crime, conflict and violence, and sub-national politics.
My research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of the Grand Union DTP, and by Green Templeton College, through the Sir David Watson Scholarship. Prior to undertaking my DPhil, I received my BA at UCL before undertaking my postgraduate studies (MSc) at Oxford. Alongside my research, I have taught the undergraduate course ‘Politics in Latin America’ at various Oxford colleges.
Grace Barnes
Clinical Non-Stipendiary Lecturer
Grace Barnes
Clinical Non-Stipendiary Lecturer
Alice Barron
Stipendiary LecturerAlice Barron is a violinist and collaborator based in London.
She enjoys a varied career combining orchestral, chamber and solo performances with improvisatory and multi-disciplinary projects. Specialising in contemporary and intercultural musics, recent performances include projects with Nigel Kennedy, Jean-Luc Ponty, L. Subramaniam and with Sam Lee at WOMAD festival in Australia and New Zealand. Alice’s collaborative work is genre-spanning and draws on her experiences studying South Indian violin techniques.
Eleanor Bath
Stipendiary Lecturer; Departmental Lecturer in Biology (Behaviour), Department of Zoology
Eleanor Bath
Stipendiary Lecturer; Departmental Lecturer in Biology (Behaviour), Department of Zoology
I am a Departmental Lecturer in Biology (Behaviour) in the Department of Zoology at Oxford. I’m currently studying the effects of mating on female aggression in fruit flies, and looking at female-female aggression in a variety of other species (including humans!).
I am broadly interested in all things evolutionary, particularly those related to sexual or social selection. My research ranges from genital morphology to female aggression and the expression of secondary sexual characters. I’m currently based at Christ Church College and the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford in the UK. I’m interested in a broad range of topics and am always happy to talk about potential collaborations. My main focus right now, though is on female-female competition, with the majority of my work looking at the role of mating in increasing female aggression in fruit flies.
Find out more about my research at http://www.eleanorbath.com/research.html
Anthony Bell FRS
Senior Research Fellow; Emeritus Professor in Physics
Anthony Bell FRS
Senior Research Fellow; Emeritus Professor in Physics
After a PhD in Radio Astronomy in Cambridge, Tony Bell worked on radar signal processing with Marconi before moving to the Central Laser Facility as a laser-plasma theorist.
In 1985 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Plasma Group at Imperial College. In 2007, following two years with the Methodist Church, he moved to a joint appointment between the Clarendon Laboratory and the Central Laser Facility.
His research encompasses laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. He wrote one of four independent papers proposing the theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks. He showed how strong magnetic field is generated during particle acceleration and how it enables cosmic ray acceleration to high energy. He initiated the theory of non-local transport for heat flow in Inertial Confinement Fusion, explained the collimation of laser-produced energetic electrons by resistively generated magnetic field, and with John Kirk demonstrated the possibility of electron-positron pair production in ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions.
He has been awarded the Hoyle Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
After a PhD in Radio Astronomy in Cambridge, Tony Bell worked on radar signal processing with Marconi before moving to the Central Laser Facility as a laser-plasma theorist. In 1985 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Plasma Group at Imperial College. In 2007, following two years with the Methodist Church, he moved to a joint appointment between the Clarendon Laboratory and the Central Laser Facility.
His research encompasses laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. He wrote one of four independent papers proposing the theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks. He showed how strong magnetic field is generated during particle acceleration and how it enables cosmic ray acceleration to high energy. He initiated the theory of non-local transport for heat flow in Inertial Confinement Fusion, explained the collimation of laser-produced energetic electrons by resistively generated magnetic field, and with John Kirk demonstrated the possibility of electron-positron pair production in ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions.
He has been awarded the Hoyle Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
For more information, see Professor Bell’s departmental web page.
‘Fornax A, Centaurus A and other radio galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays’
James H Matthews, Anthony R Bell, Katherine M Blundell, AT Araudo
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Oxford University Press 479:1 (2018) L76-L80
‘Electron acceleration by wave turbulence in a magnetized plasma’
Alexandra Rigby, F Cruz, B Albertazzi, R Bamford, A Bell, JE Cross, F Fraschetti, P Graham, Y Hara, PM Kozlowski, Y Kuramitsu, DQ Lamb, S Lebedev, F Miniati, T Morita, M Oliver, B Reville, Y Sakawa, S Sarkar, C Spindloe, R Trines, R Bingham, M Koenig, Gianluca Gregori
Nature Physics Springer Nature 14 (2018) 475-479
‘Laboratory evidence of dynamo amplification of magnetic fields in a turbulent plasma’
P Tzeferacos, Alexandra Rigby, A Bott, A Bell, R Bingham, A Casner, F Cattaneo, EM Churazov, J Emig, F Fiuza, CB Forest, J Foster, C Graziani, J Katz, M Koenig, CK Li, Jena Meinecke, R Petrasso, HS Park, BA Remington, JS Ross, D Ryu, D Ryutov, TG White, B Reville
Nature Communications Springer Nature 9 (2018) 591
‘Turbulent amplification of magnetic field and diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic rays’
AR Bell
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 353 (2), 550-558
‘The acceleration of cosmic rays in shock fronts–I’
AR Bell
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 182 (2), 147-156
Orna Ni Bhroin
Clinical Non-Stipendiary LecturerRichard Brearton
Retaining Fee Lecturer
Richard Brearton
Retaining Fee Lecturer
‘Deriving the skyrmion Hall angle from skyrmion lattice dynamics.’
Brearton, R., Turnbull, L.A., Verezhak, J.A.T. et al.
Nat Commun 12, 2723 (2021)
‘Diameter-independent skyrmion Hall angle observed in chiral magnetic multilayers’
Zeissler, K., Finizio, S., Barton, C. et al.
Nat Commun 11, 428 (2020)
‘Magnetic skyrmion interactions in the micromagnetic framework’
Richard Brearton, Gerrit van der Laan, Thorsten Hesjedal
Physical Review B 101, 13 (2020)
‘Skyrmions in anisotropic magnetic fields: strain and defect driven dynamics’
Richard Brearton, Maciej W. Olszewski, Shilei Zhang, Morten R. Eskildsen, Charles Reichhardt, Cynthia J. O. Reichhardt, Gerrit van der Laan, Thorsten Hesjedal
MRS Advances 4, 643 (2019)
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